Since its official inception in the year 2008, the transformation of Hamburg’s former port area into the new city district HafenCity has been discussed widely. The completion of the largest urban redevelopment project in Europe is scheduled for 2025-30 and it was recently decided to accompany this decisive phase with an embedded cultural programme that not only reflects the political, social and economic challenges for the city and its inhabitants, but also commits to a pioneering experiment.

The programme, conceived by the inaugural HafenCity curator Ellen Blumenstein, will consider the entire area as a cultural space, so that urban routine, tourist attractions and artistic reflection permanently merge. In this talk, Blumenstein will present her ideas on fusing the models and methodologies of the museum and public art projects, approaching curating and programming for a whole district as opposed to an institution.

Ellen Blumenstein was chief curator of KW Institute for contemporary art, Berlin from 2013-16. She has been an independent curator, member of the curatorial collective THE OFFICE and founder of the project space Salon Populaire. In 2011 she curated the Icelandic Pavilion at the Venice Biennial (Libia Castro and Ólafur Ólafsson).This event is supported by the Goethe-Institut Glasgow and presented in partnership with Curatorial Studio, which is delivered by SCAN and curator Kirsteen Macdonald, and supported by Creative Scotland and Glasgow School of Art.

Please book your place here, and note that this event is free but booking is essential.